TEA Advocacy with Groups Making Tennessee ESEA decisions

1. Five TEA representatives attended a US DoE meeting in Orlando, FL, with SDE and SBE representatives to get information about ESEA requirements and begin discussing TN’s decisions

2. P-16 Teaching Quality Committee (two meetings): This group is advising the department on teacher quality issues within ESEA. One TEA representative attended both meetings and helped create the group’s recommendations.

3. Teacher Advisory Council (three meetings): State plans for teacher quality under ESEA have been discussed with and approved by this group, on which TEA President Judy Beasley sits. This group is advisory to the state board of education.

4. Committee of Practitioners (group that has to approve ESEA accountability plan): Three TEA representatives were named to the committee and fully participated in its deliberations, expressing members’ concerns about the specifics of the ESEA accountability plan.

5. State department of education staff: TEA has daily contact with staff at the department who are making recommendations about our state’s ESEA plan. TEA has developed excellent working relationships with the staff spearheading accountability, teacher and paraprofessional quality, and funding issues. On three occasions, SDE staff have met with TEA’s ESEA work group.

6. State board of education staff: TEA has worked with state board staff including its executive director in making sure that the plan the state board adopts does not put Tennessee at a disadvantage when compared to other states. TEA attends all state board meetings and contacts state board members individually prior to their meetings to urge action to help schools implement ESEA most productively.

7. General Assembly: While the Tennessee General Assembly is not generally in a position to make decisions about the federal ESEA law is implemented, TEA communicates with state legislators to keep them informed and reviews all education bills filed to see if they have ESEA implications.

8. U.S. Congress: TEA has communicated its ESEA concerns with most members of the U.S. Congress from Tennessee and is working with NEA to lobby for needed changes in the federal law (see below). Both Senator Alexander and Rep. Duncan have introduced bills which the Association supports, which would improve ESEA. Both Alexander and Duncan are Republicans. The Association working with them is an example of its bi-partisan efforts to improve federal education laws.

9. HOUSSE Task Force: TEA is represented on the state’s ad hoc task force that is drafting Tennessee’s High Objective Uniform State Standard Evaluation (HOUSSE) which will become the best avenue for many current teachers to prove that they are “highly qualified.” The task force has met twice and hopes to finish its work on July 18.

TEA Activities to Inform and Assist TEA Members

1. Publications: every edition of teach, TEA’s monthly member publication, has contained articles regarding ESEA. Other publications have also included ESEA information. TEA has also distributed information developed by NEA.

2. Local workshops: TEA has provided information about ESEA to members in more than thirty locals and has several more scheduled. Information has also been provided to bargaining cluster meetings, statewide conferences, staff and to groups of locals in a district. Several thousand members have attended TEA ESEA workshops.

3. State workshops: TEA has provided information about ESEA at state conferences: Summer Leadership Academy, Bargaining Conference, IPD symposium, Urban Conference, Priority Schools Conference, ESP Conference, Student TEA, and Minority Affairs Conference.

4. Individual member assistance: TEA has addressed members’ questions and concerns in small group and individual settings. teach published ESEA contact information, giving members direct access to information. Members may email Susan Daltonwith their specific questions about their “highly qualified” status; staff and locals may contact Melissa Brown with questions about funding.

5. Bargaining: TEA has identified several bargaining concerns related to ESEA and is working with its locals to address these issues through negotiations.

6. Staff training: Extensive training for all TEA professional staff in May and September 2002 and March 2003, with more scheduled for September 2003.

NEA Advocacy Activities

1. NEA President Reg Weaver has ongoing meetings with Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Other NEA representatives are in frequent contact with department staff, both to get clarification about interpretations of the law and to influence regulations and guidance.

2. Lobbying: NEA is working with members of Congress and their staff to reinforce the necessity of making changes to and funding ESEA. NEA is supporting almost 50 amendments to ESEA in Congress. These amendments address all of teachers’ major concerns about ESEA.

3. Training: NEA has provided extensive training and information to state leaders and staff and continue to assist states with state and local implementation issues.

4. NEA’s priorities for amending ESEA fall into five categories:

Placing a moratorium on requirements to comply with any testing/accountability and/or educator quality requirements that are not fully funded;

Limiting the definition of “highly qualified teacher” to include only those teachers who have achieved full licensure/certification under state standards and requiring no parental notice until the deadline for teachers to become “highly qualified” and equating “highly qualified” for special education teachers with state certification in special education;

Granting states total flexibility in measuring schools’ Adequate Yearly Progress;

Granting states total flexibility in applying sanctions to schools “in need of improvement;” and

Requiring states and local school districts to fully fund the costs of necessary training for paraprofessionals, using federal Title I funds and other funding sources.